“My wife and kids left last night (an hour late, but that happens) at 12:40am for Albuquerque. We paid for 3 seats, but were only given 2. We checked two bags and a car-seat and were asked if we needed assistance in moving them from bus to bus in the layover at Dallas. We said yes and they tagged them with special tags. The trip was supposed to comprise 3 legs: Austin-Dallas with a 90 minute layover, Dallas-Amarillo with a 20 minute layover, and Amarillo to Albuquerque…”
They made it to Dallas with 5 minutes to spare before the second bus was scheduled to leave. My wife saw one of her bags and the car seat on the dolly, but couldn’t get confirmation that it had made it on the bus. She boarded and managed to at least get all three of the seats we had paid for this time.
I called again at 1, and learned that she had been stuck in Amarillo for over two hours already and that there was no clear idea of when the bus might arrive. Not much we could do about it, so we just shrugged and resigned ourselves to waiting; her there, me here. The kids were being good, but were so exhausted that they were asleep…
At lunch, I got a call from a person in Dallas who found our luggage… empty… and in a dumpster a quarter mile from the bus station. I called Heather to let her know. She was still in Amarillo (now going on 4 hours…). I called “Customer Service” and was put on hold for 36 minutes. When I finally got a hold of a person, I was immediately told that she would not discuss the matter with me because I was not the one who had ordered the tickets… I pointed out as calmly as I could that I was the sole breadwinner in my household and that I sure as heck HAD PAID for the tickets. She told me to have my wife call (You know, the love of my life, who would have to then wait on hold with two fatigued kids to monitor in a bus station). I told her to put me through to a supervisor. I got voicemail and no one has contacted me.
Around 2:30 I called my wife back and found out that a bus had just pulled up. I let her go, thinking we were getting on top of this. I later learned that she was not allowed onto that bus because it was too full… Wait… didn’t we buy a dang ticket? Then, as she got into the only 3 contiguous seats left in the NEXT bus, the driver said they were too close to his seat and that he didn’t want kids sitting there. My wife, now completely overwhelmed, came very close to crying. He accused her of threatening him because apparently he feels threatened by a crying person. He then told her that she was a bad parent if she was not able to control her kids better… They had not been doing anything! I won’t go further, but she was VERY badly treated by the Grayhound company and its people as a whole. My wife is very understanding and not prone to exaggeration. She has literally circumnavigated world, including visits to many third-world countries. When she told me the specifics of what she was told, I was glad I had not been there because I would have gone to jail.
They have now been on the road for 15 hours of a supposed 16 hour trip and are barely halfway there.
We will be buying a plane ticket for each of them to get home.
-Harold
There’s a reason Greyhound is the travel of choice for paroled convicts, fleeing criminals, and teenage runaways, and no, it’s not their fast, friendly service. It’s because they’re the cheapest option and they let you pay for a ticket in cash. We rode Greyhound from Denver to New York City so we know what we’re talking about. We’re not sure why Harold and his family chose to go Greyhound but it looks like they’re making the wise decision and springing for an airline ticket. Plane tickets aren’t that much more expensive and while air travel has complaints all its own, it’s definitely more enjoyable than bus. That said, the level of customer service Harold and his family received is abhorrent. That Greyhound let their luggage be stolen and didn’t care after it was reported is pathetic. Harold and his family are doing the best thing which is to take their business elsewhere from now on.
(Photo: bomb_tea)
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I rode my very first (and last) Greyhound bus last month visiting my Grandma in rural Ohio. (Flew into Cleveland, took the bus an hour to where she lives.) My first trip wasn’t so bad except for when the driver slipped me a note on the way out with his cell phone number asking me to “be his friend.”
The second bus I took, however, was an hour late because we had to wait for a bus from Missouri to show up and transfer its passengers to our bus, leaving my mom to wait for me at a service station parking lot with rude personnel who curtly explained, “That bus is always late.”
Oh–and Greyhound isn’t just for convicts and runaways. It’s all apparently the top choice for Amish as well.
Of course you can “blame the victim” if they are a victim of their own bad judgment.
Maybe Harold should have stopped wasting his money/time on the internet and popped for better accommodations for his family.
(By the way, there’s a regional bus company here in the Chicago area that I recommend. Coach USA. It’s basically a get to the airport from rural areas bus, but they do a fantastic job if you’re going where they are. There’s a depot near my house with free parking and it’s 36 bucks round trip to OHare. Compare that to parking, cab or limo and it’s a bargain.)
Eh, all this complaining about Greyhound… I hate to say it, but what do you expect? It’s the cheapest form of transportation in the US. I’ve taken the greyhound from Seattle to NYC, twice, and both times I felt I got my money worth. Yes, there are CONVICTED FELONS (OH MY!) on the buses, the terminals are sketchy, the customer service slightly off-putting… but seriously, you’re riding the dog. I was never robbed on the bus, met a lot of interesting folks on my travels, and had an enjoyable time. It was totally worth the 100 dollars I paid.
You shouldn’t expect top-notch service on bottom-barrel prices. If the underclass tweaks you out, stick to planes and trains.
But to complain about crappy service when you’re paying crappy rates to start, eh… Toughen up, grow some thick skin. Take a little accountability. You want your bags to get from bus to bus? Walk them over yourself. Customer service snarky? Get snarky back.
Don’t like felons? Don’t talk to em. Hate waiting in the ghetto? Read a book to take your mind off of it. There are lots of ways to travel. Pick one that suits you.
…
@PlayWithSlurry: It’s called the Chinatown Bus. I’m not sure if it’s made it outside of the Northeast, but for those of us lucky enough to live there, it’s waay cheaper, safer, and cleaner than Greyhound. You can go from pretty much any city in the NE to any other city. Sometimes with no stops (and sometimes with a movie!)
@DeeJayQueue: There are a lot of Chinatown buses that go through DC. Some are in weird Chinatown places, but some are in the business district and are very nice (like 17th and I). Shop around (although if you’re going to Richmond, you may have more limited options).
@Buran: Lawyers have to give a disclaimer to protect themselves when giving legal information without specifically working on a case. Notice it’s legal information, not legal advice — that protects the attorney since they don’t know the specifics of every case and jurisdiction to which the information could apply, and thus can’t give advice that would be applicable to all reading this comment section.
@kimsama:
I’ll remember that the next time someone INFORMS me that I’m being robbed on a Greyhound bus and that they’re not ADVISING me to give them my money before they slit my throat. Nice to know.
The only time I took (or will ever take) Greyhound was the time there were literally no other options for me to get home. I was 19 (couldn’t rent a car) and visiting a friend in Phoenix. My flight home was scheduled to leave on 9/11/2001. For much of the ride, I was seated next to a young man from Texas whose flight to Seattle had been grounded at Sky Harbor. (I also heard about knife wounds and how crack smells nice–all part of this uniquely American experience, I suppose!)
I was actually scheduled to change buses in Portland and get another bus to my parents’ house in Olympia, but my mom drove down and picked me up instead. It wasn’t horrific, but it’s definitely my least preferred method of transport, and I’ve ridden on bench seats in the back of a covered pickup for several hours between a national park and the southern coast in Thailand.
Amtrak’s on-time-ness depends on the route. Trains through Ohio and other places run slow because the freight trains run on the same tracks and they get priority (which is very stupid, but not necessarily Amtrak’s fault). But there is no question that riding Amtrak is better than riding Greyhound: bigger seats, more legroom, and the ability to get up and go somewhere when you’re tired of sitting. (You don’t get all those released felons either….) It’s more expensive, of course (hence the lack of felons), and in some cases it’s more expensive than flying…but it’s more comfortable and more environmentally friendly than flying.
My bad Greyhound experience simply involved getting on the bus and finding all the seats tilted backwards at a 45° angle, where it was impossible for me to sit upright without being squashed by the person in front of me: that was enough to scare me off the dog. Glad I didn’t face what y’all have.
Why don’t they rename the bus line after a slow lazy dog like Basset, Greyhound behaves more like a Basset Hound than a Greyhound
I used to take the bus to go see my daughter. It was a long trip for such a short distance. I did learn how to “hack” the system a bit when buying a ticket. My stop was an hour short of the next major hub on the route and I found out it actually cost about 20 bucks LESS to buy a ticket from my starting point to the next major hub than to buy one to my stop only. I did tell the driver before getting on the bus that I would be getting off the bus at that particular stop and he appreciate it as he has to call ahead to let them know how many seats would be available.
The overbooking problem is still rampant and after the last trip I took standing for six hours, I decided to never ride with them again. Mybrother in law gave me a dependable car and it has made life so much easier for this trip. It was just in time too. The routes were pared back and the times scheduled to my particular stop were changed, making it virtually impossible to use. That and the prices were jacked up way too high as well.
Never again. Greyhound sucks big donkey balls.
(The people you have to sit with are horrible and smell bad too.)
@Werdna: Depending on where you’re traveling from, Amtrak will contract a bus service for a leg of your trip, and they prefer… DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUN…. Greyhound! Sorry man, it doesn’t work out.
I could write volumes about how much Greyhound sucks. I used to take the St. Louis to Springfield, MO trip about once a month, and I can count on one finger the number of times they left early. On one trip out of Springfield, the bus was so full that I literally got the last real seat (in the middle of the row of three seats by the bathroom) and they let six more people on. One person actually sat in the bathroom the whole time. The station in St Louis is in a very crummy area of town (not safe after dark). Thank God it stops at the airport. Usually the bus only lets you off in Ft Leonard Wood at a Greyhound station and the only routes I could make it on arrived there when the station was closed. Even when it was open, they only had overpriced vending machines. Also, I think in my sphere of friends, I know about 5 people who smoke. Yet, I appear to be one of the only people on a Greyhound bus who doesn’t. Not that I mind, but it’s just funny to see them take 5 minutes to get off the bus (during a 10 minute break) then come back on and make the bus smell just like they’d been smoking there all along.
It could be worse, I guess. My dad heard about someone who fell asleep on a Greyhound bus and woke up with his pants unzipped (how he didn’t wake up the world will never know).
Chinese buses have spread all over, see http://www.ivymedia.com There’s Megabus and Jefferson Trailways (actually the old Trailways system, which Greyhound dismantled by purchasing many of the affiliates, is still alive an kicking in many parts of the country… like Vermont Transit). Amtrak also has Ambus service throughout much of the Midwest and West Coast.
At this rate, you might even chance the craigslist ride boards. They have always been a bit sketchy to me but at least you get what you pay for.
My boyfriend and I just came back from a 2 month trip across Canada and the US. We bought 60 day discovery passes very cheap. I have used Greyhound a lot in Ontario, Canada and it has always been good. The US Greyhound is a whole different story. We managed pretty well with our system– which involved arriving very early and carrying all our stuff on the bus, not underneath(they WILL lose it). I can tell you that Greyhound in Texas is especially bad– you need to make sure you are in a station where the trip originates(eg. Dallas instead of Fort Worth) and expect delays. The worst experience however was Portland and Seattle–the one manager was incredibly abusive and called security on me, just because I wanted to discuss the problem(calmly)– do not expect friendly service- just be happy if you get from point A to point B in one piece and close to when you were supposed to arrive. And avoid the Portland and Seattle stations if possible!– although if you make it to Vancouver– Greyhound was great there.
we were sending my 13 year old son to kingman az from mesa az. while waiting for the bus in mesa to phoenix, no bus ever came. The lady working at the mesa station is an ididot. The bus was scheduled to arrive in mesa at 10:55 am. At 11:10 am i asked the lady where the bus was. She said it was running late. At 11:20am, i asked her again. This time she told me that a shuttle would be coming to pick up my son and about 10 other passengers and taking them to phoenix. Finally at 11:55am, a shuttle did come. Everyone got on the shuttle, but before i let my son get on, i mentioned that the bus in phoenix was scheduled to leave at 12:01pm.The idiot employee told me not to worry that the bus would wait for the passengers to get there. So my son left for phoenix and i headed back home. About 45 mnutes later i get a phone call on my cell from a number i didnt reconize, it was my son calling from some guys cell phone. Hes telling me hes stranded in phoenix because when they got there, there wasnt a bus waiting for them and the next bus would be there at 8pm. I told my son i would be there as soon as i could get there and to stay inside. Now we are not going to wait for 8 hrs for another bus and have him arrive in kingman at 3am so we return home and are now out 70 dollars. Greyhound is awful. what if something had happened and he had no way of getting ahold of me and was stuck in phoenix all day and night.
He had a cell phone of his own but had let his battery go dead, so luckily the exconvict, tweeker had let him use his phone. I know hes an exconvict because he told my son all about his past while my son sat in phoenix waiting for me. maybe it wasnt a great idea to let a 13 yr old travel on a bus but figured he would be ok on a short 5 hr trip from mesa az to kingman az .
So I beg to differ with the elitist comment about Greyhound….as a college student, I have traveled Greyhound very frequently over the last few years. I always see students and young urban professionals who don’t own a car on the route I frequently take from Boston to Hartford. It’s less the price or paying in cash (which is expensive for a short trip on a busy route) than the convenience of not having to own or maintain a car in the city. Maybe this isn’t true outside of the East Coast, but it still seems like an unfair generalization.
That said, I’ve been waiting for Consumerist to attack Greyhound. I love it when Megabus or Boltbus or one of the Chinese bus lines run the route and give Greyhound some competition, but they don’t do it very often.The bus drivers try their best to get you to your destination on time (and they’re in general pretty good) but the ticketing system/customer service is AWFUL. In Boston, they don’t sell tickets for a particular bus. Your ticket says the time and day that you plan on traveling, but it’s actually a general ticket for the route and the buses are first come, first serve. They don’t warn you of this when you buy the ticket. Greyhound’s policy is sell as many tickets as possible, wait for lines to develop and then add buses when they can. There have been multiple times where customer service has sold me a ticket for a bus, knowing full well that there are already more people in line than will get on the bus and that they are not adding more buses, and I am shit out of luck and have to come back the next day. This has always seemed like an illegal and predatory policy – if the airlines did it, some AG would be on their ass. Thank god they added a few extra buses Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but even so we got to the station 2 hours early and the place was understaffed and chaotic.